This invention relates to holders for nails, brads and the like and, more particularly, to a novelty nail holder that is both utilitarian and amusing.
Holders for nails and brads have been known and used for many years to avoid injury to a person's fingers when driving nails of short length or in cramped quarters. Such devices date back for more than a century, as represented by Canfield 3,316,949, Frazier 2,563,677, Muller 3,522,827 and Elmore et al 4,201,258, which patents by their dates show that the holding of nails to start them is a long standing and continuing problem.
Such nail holding devices desirably should be relatively inexpensive and be able to withstand the impacts likely to occur should the person wielding the hammer miss the head of the nail and strike the holder itself, particularly when working from the side or in close quarters. Moreover, the device should provide for stable seating of the nail or brad in a perpendicular position with respect to a workpiece without requiring the user to provide support or stability thereto except to limit possible movement from an initially determined position.
The nail holder described in Muller 3,522,827 consists of a reversely bent strip of resilient material having a widened bight and two legs urged convergently into contact with each other. The free end portions of the legs are bent conjointly at right angles in nesting relationship, whereby a nail, regardless of size, can be slipped in place between the nested end portions and supported in an upright position to receive starting blows of a hammer. Thereafter, the nail is readily released from between the already spaced apart end portions by pulling the holder away from the nail.
Elmore et al describe in U.S. Pat. No. 4,201,258 a nail holder which includes a pair of operating members each having an elongated jaw portion, a handle portion and a pivot portion intermediate the jaw and handle portions normally biasing the jaw portions into engagement with each other. The handle portions are moveable towards each other to open the jaws against the biasing pressure of the pivot to permit insertion of a nail therebetween to be held with its head projecting upwardly to facilitate striking by a hammer. The bottom faces of the jaw portions lie in a common plane with the lowest surfaces of the handle portions so that the holder can be stably seated upon a workpiece into which the nail is to be driven and to orient a nail held between the jaws perpendicularly to the work surface.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a nail holder of novel configuration which is of simple and durable construction and which is adapted to firmly retain nails and brads in perpendicular relationship to a workpiece.
It is also an object to provide such a nail holder which has the shape and appearance of a human hand as it would be oriented to hold a nail in position to be struck by a hammer.
Another object is to provide such a handsimulative nail holder which may be economically fabricated primarily from pliable plastics material.
Still another object is to provide such a handsimulative nail holder which is adapted to emit a painindicating sound should the person wielding the hammer miss the head of the nail or brad and strike the "thumb" of the simulated hand.
A general object of the invention is to provide a nail holder which is adapted to firmly retain nails or brads in a position to be struck by a hammer and thus serve a utilitarian purpose while at the same time being a source of amusement.